The Enjoyment and Impact of Immersive Learning

CfEY and Punchdrunk Enrichment are delighted to publish ‘The enjoyment and impact of immersive learning’, a new report on how immersive learning can transform education.

What is immersive learning?

Immersive learning involves a process of navigating playful pathways of enquiry which centres participants as agents of change within a fictional frame, and supports them to engage in imaginative and physical transformations of spaces and practices.

What does that look like in practice? Punchdrunk Enrichment delivered the Route 158 project a –  whole school immersive adventure taking place at London primary schools across two years. Children discovered that Ermis Travel, a double decker bus from a travel agency voyaging from a world called Weevillania, had appeared in their playground. Ermis Travel needed the children’s imaginations to refuel the bus with ‘immafuel’ – fuel generated from imagination. The project used a long form immersive narrative spanning multiple weeks to engage the children with piles of wayfinding stones from space appearing in school, and audio messages from the crew of Ermis Travel, before the arrival of the bus. The learning outcome in the first year was for children to devise new and creative inventions and imaginative ideas. In the second year, the bus returned for a twin town ceremony between the school and its Weevillanian counterpart – the children devised their own responses to what culture meant to them, across literature, cuisine, art, musical anthems, and social values, and performed these to an audience of their families alongside the Ermis Travel crew in a playground parade.

Who are Punchdrunk Enrichment?

Punchdrunk Enrichment is a charity that creates transformational theatre for education, community and family audiences. Since 2020 they have been delivering two programmes in schools across London –

• ‘Immersive Learning Journeys‘ – a programme for seven schools in the London borough of Greenwich which explored what happened when Punchdrunk Enrichment delivered a range of immersive learning projects over a period of three years, working closely with school staff and communities.
• ‘Immersive Learning Collective‘ – The Immersive Learning Collective brought together a group of teachers from 16 Primary Schools and a Special School from across London. The aim was to create a bespoke multi-year programme, to help teachers become experts in immersive learning, and to provide tools and training to independently plan and launch their own creative projects for children.

CfEY’s report  draws together evaluations of both programmes to offer a succinct account of how Punchdrunk Enrichment’s approach to immersive learning impacts children in London and how this impact can be expanded to the rest of the country.

What is the impact of immersive learning? 

Drawing on pre and post intervention surveys, interviews and focus groups, there is evidence for the impact of immersive learning on:

• Creativity and imagination: Immersive learning instils elements of playfulness, exploration and adventure within children’s learning, as well as embeds creativity and risk-taking in teachers’
professional development journeys.

• Pupils’ positive attitudes towards learning: Participation in immersive learning programmes is associated with improvements in pupils’ happiness, wellbeing, positive attitudes towards learning and pupils’ ability to learn from mistakes.

• Pupils’ positive attitudes towards themselves and their wider community: Pupils participating in immersive learning show marginal but promising improvements in their sense of agency, motivation, self-efficacy and positive attitudes towards their local community.

Our report also explores some of the mechanisms by which this impact might be being achieved, as well as some of the delivery challenges of immersive learning approaches and mitigations for these challenges.

What next for immersive learning?

In order to spread and grow the success of immersive learning, we recommend that:

• Practitioners should consider introducing and trialling aspects of immersive learning into their teaching, learning and planning, with a particular focus on using immersive learning to bridge the gap in transition between key stages one and two.
• Researchers, lecturers and course convenorsinvolved in Primary Initial Teacher Training
  should consider partnering with Punchdrunk Enrichment and other providers of immersive CPD to build trainee teachers’ capability to deliver immersive learning.
• Policymakers and parliamentarians should work with existing All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), such as The Art, Craft and Design in Education APPG, to conduct further
  evidence collection on immersive learning, publishing their findings and advocating for its
  role in schools. Arts Council England and other funders should create a funding stream for more widespread trialling and delivery of immersive learning programmes across the country

Want to find out more?

Want to learn more about CfEY’s other work on curriculum, assessment and innovative approaches to teaching? Get in touch with us here to set up a chat!